Volley

The ball's back in my court.

Hi Articulate! Glad you're having fun teaching.

[Discussion of course specifics]

... Students who miss a lot of classes and miss the exam: assume he's gone. If he missed the exam, with no word to you, that's that. He may have withdrawn. If he hasn't withdrawn, then at the end of the semester you have the option of giving him an F or (I think it's) an FW, which means he failed b/c he stopped going to class. If he shows up at some point wanting to make up test etc., I would tell him sorry, missed the exam with no word, you're going to fail so you should withdraw from the class. Of course, say it nicely.

No problem on the office, I know it must be hard not to have your own space. We're going to be getting several more offices for part-time faculty--they are building them in a space that's now just empty hallway in [Campus Building]. I don't know if they will be ready for Spring, but hopefully!

Spring contract: same as Fall, it takes them forever, you will eventually get a contract and it will be for the same as the fall, same classes, times, pay. Eventually--probably in January if I know Lemon. As far as we're concerned, you're hired for the Spring too, so you don't have to worry about that.

I totally understand where you're coming from re needing full-time employment with benefits, especially with RocketMom taking time off and your THIRD!! baby on the way. And I understand the time/payment ratio not being good for you, given your commute and the time you need to spend with the courses and what they pay part-time instructors.

Unfortunately, we are very restricted about number and type of full-time positions we have for hiring right now. Here's our schedule for hiring (and yes, I'm the right person to talk to about this at this point): for next year (2008-2009) we'll be hiring 2 full-time positions, one for [job description 1] and one for [job description 2]. Those searches are ongoing now. Next year we will be searching for another [job description 2] faculty (for 2009-2010), and in 2009-2010 we'll be searching for another [subfield 1er] (for 2010-2011).

So unfortunately, we can't hire a [subfield 1er], or someone with your background, until 2010. And we are allowed only part-time hires for classes like [course #] and [course #] right now. This is from the Chancellor's office--we'd love to hire someone full-time right now, of course. You are right that there is certainly enough enrollment for 2 sections each, but part-time faculty can only teach 6 credits per semester of lecture courses (because the university is too cheap to pay for benefits, which they would have to do if a faculty member taught more than 6 credits). So if we offer 2 sections of both classes, we'd have to hire 2 part-time faculty to teach them.

I'm sorry I don't have better news for you! Universities move at a glacial pace, as I'm sure you know.

Please let me know ASAP if you decide not to teach for us next Spring--I'll have to find someone else. Of course I'll understand completely--although I think you are doing a really good job (from what I hear so far) and I'd be really happy if you taught again in the Spring.

Thanks, Articulate! Say hi to RocketMom and the boys.
Sara